Feeding Camden November 2018: Part Two

Help Brighten a Million Christmases by food donation

This is the aim of Sainsbury’s which is launching a nationwide drive to encourage customers to increase food donations by adopting a new approach in store.

The approach is the brainchild of 13 teenagers who were working on a summer social project in Sainsbury’s Exeter store as part of a National Citizen Service (NCS) initiative. They noted that customers only spotted food bank donation baskets after they finished their shopping. So the group came up with the idea of creating shelf-edge labels to highlight priority items needed by foodbanks and other organisations to inform customers as they shopped.

This simple approach had quite an impact. When the idea was trialled in Sainsbury’s Exeter branch donations tripled. And now from 28 November the labelling initiative is being rolled out as a permanent fixture across the country with a target of one million donations.

The label reads: “Priority items for local charities. Donation point at checkout.”

Sainsbury’s sister company Argos will be participating in an initiative allowing shoppers to donate new toys in store until 16 December.

Go Brighten needy Camden Christmases

Camden is preparing for full Universal Credit rollout and a briefing on the projected impact of the new benefit was held recently. It was attended by local charity workers and leaders who heard Keir Starmer, the Holborn and St Pancras MP, speak about the policy which he considers is being mishandled by the government. He is quoted as saying: “The government is broken, and the last few weeks have shown this with each decision, and they are struggling to find a way forward. Universal Credit is part of that mix.”

Dorothea Hackman, secretary of the Euston Foodbank, reported a 67% increase in usage at the foodbank since the initial roll-out had begun compared to the same period last year. She said that the foodbank is now cutting back the number of packages it is giving out – they have cut back to helping around 50 to 70 people in anticipation of increased demand.

Feeding Camden

Feeding Camden is a community project set up to help the foodbanks in the London Borough of Camden cope with the growing demand from local residents who are unable to afford the food they and their families need.